7 people can paint 5 walls in 39 minutes. How many minutes will it take for 9 people to paint 8 walls? Round to the nearest minute.
Answer: We know the following about the number of walls $w$ painted by $p$ people in $t$ minutes at a constant rate $r$ $w = r \cdot t \cdot p$ $\begin{align*}w &= 5\text{ walls}\\ p &= 7\text{ people}\\ t &= 39\text{ minutes}\end{align*}$ Substituting known values and solving for $r$ $r = \dfrac{w}{t \cdot p}= \dfrac{5}{39 \cdot 7} = \dfrac{5}{273}\text{ walls painted per minute per person}$ We can now calculate the amount of time to paint 8 walls with 9 people. $t = \dfrac{w}{r \cdot p} = \dfrac{8}{\dfrac{5}{273} \cdot 9} = \dfrac{8}{\dfrac{15}{91}} = \dfrac{728}{15}\text{ minutes}$ $= 48 \dfrac{8}{15}\text{ minutes}$ Round to the nearest minute: $t = 49\text{ minutes}$